Friends of Morrow Mountain State Park

click to enlarge - Dr. Randolf Daniel at
Morrow Mountain State Park, photo: John Young

On Sunday afternoon May 18th at the Morrow Mt. State Park Lodge the Friends of Morrow Mountain State Park sponsored the presentation about the Early American Indian History of the Region by Dr. Randolph Daniel.

Dr. I. Randolph Daniel is Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Anthropology at East Carolina University and author of books and numerous articles on prehistoric hunter-gatherers in the Southeastern United States.

His book Hardaway Revisited: Early Archaic Settlement in the Southeast was the center piece of his presentation. The unique stone tool making properties of rhyolite found in the Uwharrie Mountains and especially the unique gray fine-grained aphyric rhyolite found at Morrow Mountain was the key reason that attracted many groups of Stone Age peoples to this area.

Theses First Carolinians began regularly using the Hardaway site where they made points, scrapers and other stone tools over 12,000 years ago from stone quarried at Morrow Mountain. The Hardaway site's easy access to the large number of shad that came up the Yadkin Pee Dee River to the Narrows was another reason for the long occupation at Hardaway said Professor Daniel.

Over 100 people filled the Lodge for the 2:00 pm presentation. Everyone left more aware of the unique ancient history of our region and the importance of Morrow Mountain's rhyolite to that ancient occupation.